Eye for an Eye 22024
★★★★
WatchedMar20,2024
HKFanatic’s review published on Letterboxd:
Since the pandemic occurred in 2020, the market for straight-to-streaming action movies seems to have exploded in China, with the the streaming service iQiyi positioned as the country's answer to Netflix. The platform is now home to a plethora action flicks, many of them starring reliable Hong Kong actors Tse Miu and/or Andy On. Most of their films I've sampled have met a baseline 3-stars level of quality and competency, but in the realm of direct-to-iQiyi cinema, the "Eye for an Eye" movies are the equivalent of top shelf liquor; the series remains a cut above its peers, with a classic Asian cinema premise (stories about blind swordsmen never go out of style), a compelling lead in Tse Miu, and exciting action design. If you're curious about the Chinese straight-to-streaming scene, there's no better place to start than "Eye for an Eye" and its sequel.
"Eye for an Eye 2," released this year, lacks some novelty by virtue of being a sequel, but otherwise finds that director Yang Bingjia and his leading man Tse Miu haven't missed a step. After the first movie took liberal inspiration from the iconic Japanese character of Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, the sequel instead riffs on another Japanese classic, "Lone Wolf and Cub": our hero is back with a pint-sized protege in tow. Regardless of the language barrier, I was impressed by the young Yang Enyou and her performance; the film gambles big on her being able to carry much of the storyline's dramatic heft and the film's screentime, and the child actress pulls it off. You can see the story beats coming from a mile away—you just know our curmudgeonly, emotionally closed off hero is eventually going to thaw and take to a shine to his new, unwanted charge—but they still prove satisfying thanks to the dedication of the performers.
As far as the action sequences are concerned, I might complain that the editing is a little too fast—we often cut away from a shot before you can even orient yourself in it—but otherwise "Eye for an Eye" offers a smattering of kinetic and quite brutal fight scenes, as Tse Miu breaks bones and stabs limbs like nobody's business. The climax, in particular, really elevates the film and proved to be the factor that cemented my 4-star rating: Tse Miu must battle no less than 300 red-garbed opponents while protecting the life of the child in his care, an exciting and over-the-top finale that generates some extra weight since you really want the swordsman and his adopted ward to make it out alive.
Bonus points for the earlier scene where a bad guy suddenly turns into a Dark Souls boss by lighting his two swords on fire—not sure I've ever seen that before!
With a touch more clarity and restraint to its fast-cut action sequences, my endorsement of "Eye to an Eye 2" would likely be a bit more unabashed. Even with my slight disappointment at the editing tempo, this still registers as a worthwhile sequel from Tse Miu and company. While the ending here leaves one in doubt that we'll see another entry in the series, it's a testament to "Eye for an Eye 2" that I would happily queue up a sequel in another year or two. If you're at all curious about the Chinese streaming realm and the action cinema it has to offer, you're going to want to make time for the genre's latest blind swordsman.
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